John Rio, M.A., CRC

Senior Program Associate

John Rio, M.A., CRC, a senior program associate at AHP, co-directed the Chronic Homelessness Employment Technical Assistance Center (CHETA) supported by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). He currently leads AHP work for the DOL’s National Veterans Technical Assistance Center (NVTAC). With more than 30 years of experience in rehabilitation and recovery services, supportive housing, and homeless assistance services, he also provides technical assistance (TA) supported by the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Veterans Affairs (VA). For VA, he is working on the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) and the Benefits Assistance Support System (BASS) initiatives.

Before joining AHP, Mr. Rio was a senior staff member of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, where he directed national supportive services initiatives and worked on public policies related to permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness with co-occurring mental health conditions and substance use disorders as well as histories of incarceration. He is currently a reviewer for the professional journal Psychiatric Services and provides critiques and feedback to authors on submissions related to homelessness, employment, veterans, and mental health.

Mr. Rio’s work has focused on developing materials, delivering TA and training, designing strategies to help increase the capacity of supportive housing and service organizations to offer employment services to formerly homeless people with disabilities, encouraging social policy, and assisting supportive housing and service providers with innovative programming. He coordinated two demonstration projects, one funded by the Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration to link the supportive housing industry and the vocational rehabilitation system in New York City, the other a community college-based career advancement project for people experiencing homelessness in Chicago. He is the co-founder of Riverwood Rehabilitation Services, a community-based housing and psychiatric rehabilitation services organization in Rhode Island.